"The HNS has supported Zagreb Pride parades from the very beginning and participated in them because it believes that one day Croatia will be a just society of equal citizens where all will have the right to choose their own life style," Pusic, who chairs the HNS/HSU (Croatian Pensioners' Party) club of deputies in the parliament, told a news conference.

HNS president Cacic said that the Gay Pride parade held in Split this past Saturday provided evidence of attacks on the country's constitution and the freedom of opinion, of hate crime and the negation of prerequisites for a healthy society, which he said could be built only by eliminating all types of discrimination.

At the end of the news conference, reporters asked Pusic if she believed that Serbian President Boris Tadic should be invited to a forthcoming event marking Croatia's Statehood Day, on which President Ivo Josipovic and Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor seem not to be able to agree, Pusic said that Josipovic and Kosor should first agree on who should be invited to the event.

"Also, if we have managed over the last 20 years to radically change the situation in Croatia and the region and in our relations with neighbouring countries - from the war to joint responsibility for the stability of the region - then it would be good to invite leaders from neighbouring countries. Or not, if we think that 'we are still not there', that depends on how successful we think Croatia is," said Pusic.

Members of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) have also announced their participation in the Zagreb march on 18 June.